The Kingmaker

Vilamia and Val work at Surly Jack’s Tavern for the evening and make 6 gold each after pooling their tips together with the other two barmaids – Treena and Lavanda.
During the evening, a green haired gnome (3ft 3) carrying a satchel is noticed moving from table to table. Akorian drinks heavily and embarrasses himself by not tipping his servers. Val and Vilamia take a table to have some dinner and the green haired gnome joins them. He questions the girls about their skills and introduces himself as Thatcher Griffenchaser Esq. of West River Bank Absylom. He eventually explains that he is looking for adventurers. He acquired a scroll that can grant mythical powers if read under a full moon on a certain day with a certain lens. He claims that he is not interested in the mythical power, but wants the treasure that is with it and has the combination for the final vault. He offers the mythical power and 5% of the treasure for doing all the adventuring, fighting the monsters, disabling the traps and taking all the risk while he waits outside. Akorian drunkenly negotiates him up to 10%; Vilamia adds the condition we keep any treasure we acquire from monsters we meet and kill. Thatcher agrees. We meet Thatcher at the temple of Iomed in the morning to seal the pact.
The justicar warns that anyone that breaks the pact will magically have “oathbreaker” tattooed across their face.
We head NE from Darwin’s landing into some rolling hills He explains that we are raiding the wizard lord Wexall’s tomb. He ruled this area before the Time of Darkness.
We travel for 90 miles which takes 4 days. Thatcher provides food which he caries on his donkey, Petula. As we enter the hills, Thatcher explains that these are the burial mounds of the old horse lords. He stops at a particular mound which has a door hidden by a giant boulder. Akorian tries to move the boulder, but it is too heavy, so Val uses an explosion to split the rock into 6 pieces. There is a hissing sound as a tunnel behind the boulder is revealed. Val and Vilamia take out their hooded lanterns to combat the darkness, and Akorian lights his burning sword. The tunnel is just big enough to stand in and dank and musty. Using his darkvision ability Akorian takes the lead with Val and Vilaminia following. Eventually the group comes to an alcove with dead mummies stacked on each side, and a door straight ahead. Akorian triggers the trap on the door and is sprayed with salt acid becoming permanently blinded. We move through the now trapless door, and continue straight through the darkness. We pass a branch on the right and then one on the left, but eventually enter a large room at the end of the tunnel. Up to this point Akorian continues to take the lead using his sword as a blind man’s cane, tapping it against the wall as we go along. Inside the room there is a fresco of a powerful wizard smiting barbarians on the wall and once fine rugs decorating the now tattered elliptically shaped cavern. There are 12 pillars in the room with torches on each. Vilamia begins lighting the torches. As the torches illuminate the center of the room, there appears 12 rows of benches on each side, filled with corpses in noble dress. The cavern is set up almost as a church. The diaz is not quite visible, but there is a shadowy figure in the center flanked on each side by by an additional figure. There are a total of 24 corpses scattered along the benches.
We point Akorian toward the diaz having him climb the steps but nothing happens and we still can’t see the diaz. Val and Vilamia follow with the lanterns and find an iron thrown in the center with a purple robed corpse on an iron thrown flanked on either side by lion braziers. The corpse is clutching a 5ft high staff with a crystal on top. There are also 2 empty sockets on each side of the top of throne. Akorian takes the staff but nothing happens. Upon further inspection Vilamia notices a perfectly round hole in the floor. She places the staff in the hole and it fits snugly, but nothing happens.
We decide that it is likely that the items that will fit in the sockets on the throne are needed and down the branching hallways. We move back to the first hallway, led by a blind Akorian as a meat shield. He is sliced in half by trap including multiple pendulums and darting knives.
We resurrect him. Swain, Akorian’s bird, flies to the other end of the tunnel and is able to reset the trap, putting the knives back into the wall. Akorian climbs down the hall above the floor in an “X” fashion. He finds a square room at the end of the hall with a fountain and several large iron pots lining opposite walls. The trek is too difficult for both Val and Vilamia. Akorian looks at the pots, which have writing upon them. On each, a lightning bolt, a star, the sun, the moon, and a cloud, and on the other side of the room, a castle, a tree, a cat, a mountain and water.
Akorian decides to look in the pots in this order: In the star pot, he sees 3 almond shapes with lines coming through it, and in the cloud one almond shape with lines coming through it. In the tree, 4 straight lines, making humps, and in the water pot, a half circle. After filling all the marked pots, they tip into the center of the room and a tree grows. Inside the hollow of the tree, there is a large round blue crystal. Akorian easily returns with the crystal, and we move to the next branch in the hallway. Vilamia sends an unseen minion down the hall, but nothing happens. The party moves down the hall without incident into a room covered with vines with a large scale in the center. The scale has gold on one side. We balance the scale with our own money, and a small door opens under the scale and a red orb roles out. We take the orb and move back to the throne room. When the staff is placed in the hole and an orb on each side of the throne, the light from each of those on the throne shines on the staff, and the light from the stall shines on the corresponding picture of the staff on the wall. The staff on the wall radiates lightning throughout the room and the skeletons come alive. After a long battle where most of the skeletons were killed, Val kills the sorcerer skeleton and the rest (4 out of 24 left) drop to the floor. Vilamia looks for treasure from the skeletal monsters finding: 786 GP, Wand of Inflict Moderate Wounds, Potion of Bears Endurance, Arcane Scroll of True Strike, Bracers of Archery, lesser and a Feather Token with a picture of an oak tree. These items are split between the group. In the possession of the wizard, a small silver key is discovered. Under the cushion on the throne is a keyhole. After turning the key in one direction, the color drains out of one of the orbs. After turning the key in the other direction, the color drains out of the other orb. The seat opens to reveal a ladder which extends down through a tunnel of wooden gears and machinery. One of the gears appears to be doorway sized, but there is a gear in front of it blocking it in. There are several levers near the doorway. Akorian sets all 4 levers but does something wrong. The machine starts to shake and come apart, but there is a narrow opening that everyone is able to jump through. A fitted stone tunnel lies beyond. There is a room off to the right or an intricate vault door straight ahead. We choose the side passage first, and a iron door slams shut behind us, and the room starts filling with a brown liquid. A wereshark is released into the water. Vilamia and Val use their aquius earrings to turn into merfolk and breathe underwater, but Akorian is screwed. He is able to hold his breathe long enough to defeat the creature. The liquid drains out. There is chest in the room which contains a chain shirt of +5, archane scroll of charm monster, archane scroll of sleep, archane scroll of passwall (create passage through wood plaster or stone walls), 1,750 gold and a small bag of brown dust. We go back to the surface to retrieve Thatcher for the final vault door. Thatcher is able to open the door without incident, and there is a “National Treasure” sized haul inside the vault. Thatcher insists that we start searching for the focusing lens for the scroll, which he finds fairly quickly. Vilamia takes the lens and Thatcher pulls out a magical abacus to tally the treasure. There is 150,000 Plats in the room. Our 10% is 15,000 plats, 5,000 plats each. Thatcher starts shoveling his portion into his portable hole. He also shows us the map and points out Hangman’s point, 150 miles away, which is where the scroll must be read in 3 days time. The trip there is quick and uneventful, and we arrive at a large tree with a noose. We read the words but nothing happens. We were had.. The scroll was a fake! We rush back to the treasure room, but the door is locked. We spend 2 days trying to open the door, and Vilamia gets her hand lopped off by a trap. When we finally break through, allowing Vilamia to acquire her severed hand, the room is empty. We steal Thatcher’s donkey and tent and head back to Darwin’s landing, Vilamia using Ray of Frost to preserve her hand. Vilamia has her hand restored at the temple of Iomed. After speaking with the first sword of the temple, we learn that there is no justicar at the temple. We speak to a mage to evaluate the scroll, and while speaking to him, we find that the the plats that we got are now iron. We stop to speak to the owner of the general store and to speak to Telonicus the pink haired gnome engineer. While speaking to Telonicus, Akorian is offered a 32 year apprenticeship to become a master engineer, which he accepts.
Vilamia and Val leave without Akorian and go to the donkey rental stable. The mistress shows us the card left by the double crossing, little terd of a gnome, which says “Griffen Thatchercather”. Feeling frustrated Val and Vilamia return to Surly Jack’s Tavern, hoping to work in the evenings for the remainder of the time before the coronation. Folgrim Axesmasher, the barkeep, mentions that he has seen the “justicar” around before, and recommends that we speak to the sheriff. The sheriff has heard of the green haired gnome several times for passing coin that turns to iron. He gives the name of Jeremy Crookfield for the “justicar” but doubts that that was his real name. On the second night, Val and Vilamia are approached by Tom. They are mistrustful of him, but he was recommended by Akorian. Akorian left his things for Tom, which the girls turn over to him. Tom is somewhat abrasive, and Val leaves to go back to work. Vilamia stays to speak with him, since he wants to work for Sandworks Imports. She explains she can’t guarantee employment but he is welcome to come with us when we leave in five days. Val and Vilamia work at Surly Jack’s Tavern for five days earning 182 GP each for their stage act and for working as barmaids. Tom returns with the girls to Newcastle for the coronation. Vilamia has sent a letter to the Sandworks Imports’ owners a few days prior to leaving explaining what happened to Akorian and why Tom is with us so they can decide whether to employ our new found party member.

The return trip through the underdark begins. The wheels are removed from the carts and the entire party slides down a lava tube as the slogs (the creatures that pull the carts) grease the channel. 7 goblins riding stone boards attack as we are moving through the tube but are defeated. Vilamia takes an arrow in the shoulder and in the thigh. Arkorian is severely wounded with a broken wing and shattered jaw and could not speak for 2 days.
The caravan makes camp on the open plain. During the night, 4 guards suddenly disappear, leaving only their clothes. The only known commonality is that all were from Nidal. This leaves the party short-handed
Twinkling lights have been seen in the distance for 2 days now. We travel on and make camp the next night. Val, Akorian and Vilamia all pull guard duty as the twinkling lights come into range. Akorian Val, and Halsion are inexplicably drawn to one of the glowing orbs, which turns out to be a small winged woman. The woman actually turns out to a decoy attached to a monster (such as an angler fish) on the edge of the darkness. It attacks Akorian and is consuming him from the bottom up (winner winner chicken dinner). Val is completely enthralled and lays down next to Akorian as he is being consumed. Vilamia rouses the camp and it flees. Before it goes, it takes it’s forked tongue and pumps 3 eggs into the stomachs of Akorian and Val. Vilamia fires an arrow after it, but hits Val instead.

The presence of the eggs goes unnoticed by the healers, and the party continues on, arriving shortly at a Duergar (deep dwarves) city.

We move on through the underdark. Three days later, Akorian wakes up with serious stomach pains and feels the urgent need to relieve himself. The next day Val has the same sensation, and notices 3 tiny creatures among the excrement. Vilamia kills 2 with a throwing star, which brings on an attack of a hoard of the creatures. The last is placed in a jar for examination by the healers but they have no interest. The creatures destroy one of the carts entirely, but when Akorian opens the jar and leaves it on the road, the creatures allow the caravan to escape.

The caravan enters a fungal jungle, where the party feels a strong sense of being watched. The area was once inhabited by veggie pygmies, but the tribe has not been seen in several trips. The group makes camp in the jungle and Val, Akorian and Vilamia set around a fire while on guard duty. There is a commotion on the opposite side of the camp, and a guard informs the team that veggie pygmies have abducted 2 of the men. The team tracks one of the pygmies to their village, where the 2 men are staked out near a pool of black pudding slime which is moving toward them. The group tries to intimidate the tribe, but the tribe backs away exclaiming that their god, (the black ooze) will defeat the party (Black Death, Black Death, Black Death!!). Vilamia is sucked inside the ooze. Val throws a lit lantern oil bottle at it, but instead of destroying the creature, it ignites and turns it into a giant fire pudding which causes both acid and fire damage. Vilamia is able to fight her way free but is badly injured. Val is killed with the next attack from the creature, but the ever loyal Xing flies in to retrieve her body and return her lifeless form to the camp.
Vilamia knocks 3 veggie pygmies into the ooze and Akorian throws his dark phoenix feather into the dark mess. The incredible heat births a large purple dark phoenix which battles the fire pudding. The fiery battle ignites 62% of the environment, as Akorian, Vilimia and the 2 freed guards run back to the camp. The giant red orb, which turns out to be a giant crystal spider, descends to join the fray.
Meanwhile, Val has been resurrected by the caravan healers, and informs them of the heated battle. The caravan immediately starts packing up and is moving by the time the missing party members return. The group is able to make it out of the cavern and make their way to the the next stopping point, a Drow city. Val and Vilamia purchase a 9 year old Dwarven girl and a 6 year old Drow girl to return with them and be freed. The caravan returns to the surface and ends their journey where it began, in Oppara, Taldor.
Each party member receives an Eastern Trading Company token with the number one on it. If anyone chooses to do another trip, presenting the token will demand a higher rate of pay. The next caravan will depart in 4 months and will last another 6 months. Each party member was paid their wight in gold for the first journey.

The party spends the night in Oppara, does some shopping, then returns to Tol-Ivrengond by airship.

Val rents an apartment in the residential district of the island for 20 plats a month (1 year paid up front) to accommodate her growing family.

Karis is not on the island, nor are any of the rest of the A team. The party asks Ellasaria where they have gone or if there are any awaiting assignments. She directs them to the airship which will soon depart with party supplies for Nidol where Karis and her party are currently working. The B team departs on the airship, and Val brings the girls with, but leaves them with friends to enjoy the party.

The party searches for Karis and the A team. they question knights near the palace about their location. The knights seem edgy, but seem reverent at the mention of the name Radriar Darwin. The party is informed that king Sebastian Cross and Radriar Darwin banished Zon-Kuthon and enacted the great Kuthon purge and freed the people of the country. The Kuthites simply vanished.
The knights seem protective still of Radriar Darwin and his friends, but after the showing of the Trellorn and Associates pins, they reveal rumors that the party is staying at the home of Sebastian Cross outside of the city. The knights also inform the party that the city, Pangolias, has now been renamed New Castle.
A shopkeeper informs the party of the changes to the city, including the cutting down of trees to let in more sunlight, and the exodus of many former slaves to the area known as Orolos Quay, where it is rumored that there will be a wonderful surprise.
The party speaks with another set of knights outside of the Cross Estate and is able to exchange messages with Karis. Karis explains that they are lying low with Radriar so that Sebastian Cross can be firmly established as the new king, and to return in 2 weeks for the coronation. Through an additional message exchange, the party learns from Karis that Orolos Quay is 3.5 days journey northwest of the estate on the ocean, and used to be a smugglers den. The party takes to the road and follows the people headed toward Orolos Quay. The rumor is that there may be a big building project or a land grab, or plentiful jobs. There are conflicting accounts, but high excitement among the travelers. When the party nears Orolos Quay, they view a huge tent city surrounding a massive building project with a large keep, temples, stone docks, etc. The construction runs through the night and round the clock. The people are excited and eager to work. Val and Vilamia are suspicious that Taldor may be behind this.
The party approaches the keep which is guarded by a host of knights bearing a crest with a sun split by a longsword with a crown in the corner. They will not tell the purpose of the keep, but do allow entry into the engineering tent where the party meets Telonicus (pink haired gnome), master engineer and Daltros’ teacher.
After visiting the temples, and the dock, the party runs across Surly Jack’s Tavern, where the dwarven barkeep, Folgrim Axesmasher, reveals that the city is being built as a gift for Radriar Darwin, who they wish to become the duke of this land. After he accepts, the workers will be unleashed on the city as its new inhabitants.
Finkle is the business partner of Folgrim. He is a gnomish inventor that created a beer making machine. Telonicus visits the tavern often to fight with Finkle.
Akorian has some Dwarven stout ale and becomes inebriated. Val and Vilamia make plans to work at the bar that evening.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.